viscosity interferes with my wireless connection

[melbogia]

Hi,
When I connect with Viscosity it works for about 10-15secs and then it seems to interferes with my wireless connection. All my internet connection ceases not to mention my vpn connection, viscosity eventually dies after some time probably because it cannot talk to the vpn server which it created in the first place. When I turn off viscosity my connection comes back and I can use the internet once again.

Routing table before connecting with Viscosity

Routing tables

Internet:
Destination Gateway Flags Refs Use Netif Expire
default 192.168.1.1 UGSc 10 113 en1
127 localhost UCS 0 0 lo0
localhost localhost UH 0 11044 lo0
169.254 link#5 UCS 0 0 en1
172.16.132/24 link#7 UC 0 0 vmnet1
192.168.1 link#5 UCS 1 0 en1
192.168.1.1 0:f:a7:6b:6b:6b UHLW 26 1250 en1 747
192.168.1.2 localhost UHS 0 0 lo0
192.168.26 link#6 UC 0 0 vmnet8

And After

Internet:
Destination Gateway Flags Refs Use Netif Expire
default 192.168.1.1 UGSc 12 113 en1
10 10.16.29.121 UGSc 0 0 tun0
10.0.0.2/32 10.16.29.121 UGSc 0 0 tun0
10.16/16 10.16.29.121 UGSc 0 0 tun0
10.16.0.30/32 10.16.29.121 UGSc 0 0 tun0
10.16.0.31/32 10.16.29.121 UGSc 1 0 tun0
10.16.0.38/32 10.16.29.121 UGSc 0 0 tun0
10.16.0.50/32 10.16.29.121 UGSc 0 0 tun0
10.16.16/20 10.16.29.121 UGSc 0 0 tun0
10.16.29.121 10.16.29.122 UH 13 0 tun0
127 localhost UCS 0 0 lo0
localhost localhost UH 2 11114 lo0
140.85 10.16.29.121 UGSc 0 0 tun0
141.146.128/17 10.16.29.121 UGSc 0 0 tun0
169.254 link#5 UCS 0 0 en1
172.16.132/24 link#7 UC 1 0 vmnet1
172.16.132.255 ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff UHLWb 1 12 vmnet1
172.17/24 10.16.29.121 UGSc 0 0 tun0
172.31 10.16.29.121 UGSc 0 0 tun0
192.168.1 link#5 UCS 2 0 en1
192.168.1.1 0:f:a7:6b:6b:6b UHLW 11 1279 en1 513
192.168.1.2 localhost UHS 0 0 lo0
192.168.1.255 ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff UHLWb 0 12 en1
192.168.26 link#6 UC 1 0 vmnet8
192.168.26.255 ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff UHLWb 0 9 vmnet8

[James]

Hi melbogia,

What version of Viscosity are you using? Are you using Leopard (Mac OS 10.5) or Snow Leopard (Mac OS 10.6)?

Would you be able to post a copy of your Viscosity config file, as well as a copy of the server's config file (assuming you are in control of the OpenVPN server...)? Please feel free to censor out any sensitive addresses etc before posting. Viscosity's config file can be found at:
Your Home Directory->Library->Application Support->Viscosity->OpenVPN->#->config.conf

Cheers,
James

[melbogia]

Hello James,
I don't have access to the openvpn server but I'd assume it is configured correctly since it's the company's vpn server. I am using Viscosity 1.0.6 with Leopard. Here's my viscosity config.conf

remote vpn.server.com 1194
pull
tls-client
tls-auth ta.key 1
proto udp
persist-key
ca ca.crt
nobind
persist-tun
cert cert.crt
comp-lzo
dev tun
key key.key
pull dhcp-options
ns-cert-type server
resolv-retry infinite
mute 20
route-method exe
route-delay 2

[James]

Hi melbogia,

I'd recommend you try editing your connection in Viscosity, clicking on the Advanced tab, and removing the lines "route-method exe" and "route-delay 2" from the advanced commands area. Click Save, and see how you go.

I'd also recommend checking your OpenVPN log and see if OpenVPN is displaying any warnings or errors. You can view this by opening Viscosity's Details window, and clicking on the Log button (the 3rd from the left).

Cheers,
James

[melbogia]

Hi James,
I removed those two lines but it didn't change anything and it is still acting the same way. After a while I see a popup on the top (a growl popup?) saying that it connected again. And it appends this information to the log

Mon Nov 9 22:07:44 2009: [server] Inactivity timeout (--ping-restart), restarting
Mon Nov 9 22:07:44 2009: SIGUSR1[soft,ping-restart] received, process restarting
Mon Nov 9 22:07:44 2009: NOTE: OpenVPN 2.1 requires '--script-security 2' or higher to call user-defined scripts or executables
Mon Nov 9 22:07:44 2009: Re-using SSL/TLS context
Mon Nov 9 22:07:44 2009: LZO compression initialized
Mon Nov 9 22:07:44 2009: UDPv4 link local: [undef]
Mon Nov 9 22:07:44 2009: UDPv4 link remote: 10.0.0.2:1194
Mon Nov 9 22:07:45 2009: [server] Peer Connection Initiated with 10.0.0.2:1194
Mon Nov 9 22:07:49 2009: Preserving previous TUN/TAP instance: tun0
Mon Nov 9 22:07:49 2009: Initialization Sequence Completed

I am tempted to say it is some kind of routing issue. I say that because not only the VPN connection stops working after a min or so when I connect using Viscosity but also all my other internet connections stop working.

[melbogia]

Any help on this?

[James]

Does the VPN connection work correctly before it drops out? If so, does it still drop out if you edit your connection in Viscosity, click on the Options tab, and add a Ping value of 5, and a Ping-Restart value of 300?

It may also be worth turning on Viscosity's Reset network interfaces on disconnect option (under Preferences->Advanced) to see if it helps.

Cheers,
James